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The Happy Planet Index

We are accustomed to comparing countries in terms of crude riches or what they trade. Some countries earn, or are given, reputations for music, sporting excellence, food, or as holiday destinations. There are international league tables for performance on a range of issues from corruption to football. This website introduces a measure of something more fundamental. It addresses the relative success or failure of countries in supporting good life for their citizens, whilst repecting the environmental resource limits upon which our lives depend.
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an innovative new measure that shows the ecological efficiency with which human well-being is delivered.

You can find a lot more, together with all the data for all the world's countires at http://www.happyplanetindex.org/introduction.htm

Why not take a guess at the top five countries before you go over there? You will be surprised.

You can calculate your own individual HPI: I did and found it was very low and my ecological footprint was appalling too even though I am a veggie who mainly eats fresh food, recycles and is very parsimonious in terms of resource wastage! Well, I thought so anyway.

I would love to hear from you if you can prove the formula they use to calculate the HPI. They give a formula at http://www.happyplanetindex.org/calculated.htm but I don't agree with it. I have written to them to ask for an explanation but if you are a mathematician, please educate and advise!

You should also look for the average placing of island nations: there's something interesting there too.

Duncan Williamson

posted by Duncan Williamson @ 9:42 AM